First Dominion and now this. With any luck, another source of the poison that's being poured into the veins of way too many of our fellow Americans is going to end up being sued into oblivion.

A federal judge in California has ordered Herring Networks, the parent company of far-right conservative media organization One America News Network (OAN), to pay MSNBC and host Rachel Maddow $250,000 in attorney’s fees stemming from a defamation lawsuit that was dismissed last year. Herring in July 2019 filed a lawsuit against Maddow which claimed the liberal host had defamed OAN when she discussed reports that one of the network’s contributors also worked for the Russia state news organization Sputnik. Maddow went on to state that OAN “literally is paid Russian propaganda,” which OAN’s parent company claimed was false and defamatory. Herring, the parent company, then filed a defamation lawsuit seeking $10 million.

Attorneys representing Maddow and MSNBC responded by filing a special motion to strike the case under California’s Anti-Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (Anti-SLAPP) law. Such measures are meant to prevent people and companies from using the courts to stifle constitutionally protected First Amendment speech.

Siding against OAN, U.S. District Judge Cynthia Bashant, an appointee of President Barack Obama, dismissed the suit with prejudice. Bashant reasoned that there was “no set of facts that could support a claim for defamation based on Maddow’s statement.”

Maybe Mike Lindell's "documentary" will be next.